Chapter VI - Part I

Scarlett’s POV

The icy drops of rain caused me to shiver uncontrollably as I walked to Seth’s house from the hotel. I told everyone that I’d meet up with them later, without specifying why. That’s one of the things I love the most about being in a band with my three best friends. We’d known each other since high school, and they can always tell when I want to be alone without taking any offense or worrying that they’ve done something to offend me. Whenever I have a lot on my mind, I always go for walks to clear my head. Lately, all that was consuming my thoughts was James, James and James. It’s getting to the point where he’s hindering my creative thought process, whenever I tried to get pen to paper, or paintbrush to canvas or my fingers to the fret board of my guitar I produced nothing. All I saw was his smile and all I heard was the smooth velvet tone to his voice.

James is going to be the death of me. If he wasn’t clouding my thoughts 24/7, then I wouldn’t be walking through some rich suburban area of Los Angeles, getting hypothermia on a miserable, rainy day. When I left the hotel people were bustling about their normal business and enjoying the warmth of the sun. It was just my luck that I didn’t think to bring any money in case I needed to call a taxi…or cab, whatever Americans like to call them.  Laughing to myself, I remembered the first time I asked a local where I could find the nearest taxi depot. Their blank expression is still so clear in my mind. Thinking about the difference between the American and Australian psyche reminded me of when I was living in New York with James. Even then, I never quite grasped the common lingo. Things weren’t always bad with him. In fact, one of the happiest times of my life was when we lived in New York together.

He’d always laugh and make fun of how I pronounced certain words differently, or how I used Australian terminology to refer to everyday things.  Like the time we went out to lunch together and I wanted some french fries. I called them ‘hot chips’ and for whatever reason, to James, it was the funniest thing in the world to him. So then it became a tradition that whenever we went out for fast food where French fries were being served, James would always ask for hot chips just to get a rise out of me. 

He wasn’t any better though. One time when it was nearing our four month anniversary, I was missing the simplicity of wearing casual footwear and I asked James to buy me a pair of thongs. At the time, I wondered why he was so enthusiastic about buying such a thing for me. When he came back, he presented me with some Victoria’s Secret lingerie and we both found out that ‘thongs’ in Australia, meant ‘flip flops’ in America. To prevent any further mishaps, we both composed our own lists of American-Australian slang for each other. I’m pretty sure I still have his original handwritten copy pinned up on the corkboard in my home studio. I can never bring myself to get rid of it.

Looking up ahead of me, I became overwhelmed with the sinking realisation that I probably had a few more kilometres to go. Honestly, if I didn’t know better I could confidently say that I was wandering through the streets of Melbourne. Over there, the weather changes more frequently than a germ freak would coat their hands in sanitiser. Glancing down at my clothes, I shuddered at the sight of how damp they were. By now my shirt had gone entirely see through and if I didn’t hurry up, I’d get hypothermia and die.

The sound of a car pulling over to the curb met my ears and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed it slow down to match the speed of my stride.

Great.

Honestly, could this day get any worse?

It’s pouring down rain, the ground is slipperier than freshly polished floorboards and given my tendency to be accident prone there is no way I could outrun some pervert stalking me in a black sedan, ready to abduct me any second now. Hearing the window wind down, I spun on my heel ready to run my mouth off at them when I was surprised to see who was situated at the wheel.

Apparently, yes. It can.

“Get in,” James orders, nodding his head towards the passenger side. I don’t know whether it was because I was nearly an icicle or because I was surprised at his gesture, but I couldn’t seem to move from my spot. Turning off the engine, James got out and dragged me into the car where I finally snapped to my senses and I swore I felt myself thaw out a bit.

“T-thanks,” I said, my mouth jittering.

“You’re insane!” James says, turning the heater on to full blast, “You’re going to get sick, you know that right?”

“I didn’t purposely decide to walk in the rain,” I shot back at him.

“You nearly did,” James scoffed, “You almost refused to get in.”

“Well for one, I was almost frozen, and secondly I was a bit surprised that you were being nice to me.”

Relaxing back into his seat, his voice softened when he spoke again. “Why would you say that?”

Shrugging, I glanced out of the passenger seat window and watched the rain running down the glass, “Well, because you hate me.” James chuckled audibly as we pulled into Seth’s driveway. I wasn’t sure if he not commenting on what I’d just said was a good thing, or a bad thing. Once we got out of the car, James smirked at me, “Nice bra.” “Jealous?” “Maybe.”

Just as I was about to ring the doorbell, James swatted my arm away and pulled me towards him.

“Wha-“ I began, before I was cut off by his mouth being pressed against mine. The warmth of his lips gliding across mine immediately sent heat throughout my body. Breaking apart, James smiled briefly before reaching up to ring the doorbell.

“Your lips were blue,” James shrugs, answering my question before I could even ask it. 

Before I respond to him the front door swung open.

"Scarlett! You're shaking like crazy," Lauren shrieks as she hurriedly welcomed us both inside.

“Everyone is in entertainment room,” She says to James, before ushering me to her room where she gave me an entirely new set of clothes to wear. On my way back downstairs, I came across James in the hallway.

“Hey, Scarlett, could you maybe give me a hand with some drinks?”  He asks.

“Yeah no problem,” I smiled, following him into the kitchen.

“Just carry what you can handle,” James says as he opens the fridge door. My entire body shook as I felt the wave of cold air from the fridge hit me and I began rubbing my arms. Noticing this, James quickly shuts the door. Stepping to the side, he removed his blue-grey sweater and placed it over my head. The sweater itself made me feel like a waif in the way it hung off my body. While I’m not that skinny, the constant touring and nomadic lifestyle does keep me fit though personally I wouldn't mind having more meat on my bones. But even on James, the sweater appeared slightly over-sized and he is quite bulked up.

“There you go,” He smiles.

Creasing my forehead, I stared up at him.

“Alright, what’s that looking for?” James inquires, folding his arms and leaning his back against the fridge door.

“You’re freaking me out.  You’ve gone from hating me, to giving me your damn sweater to wear in just less than an hour.”

I watched as scratched at the stubble on his chin, and then at his neck, “Well…I never hated you in the first place Scarlett, I just hate fighting with you. You’d always make a bitch move straight away and treat me like shit, so I’d do the same back to you. I just got tired of it.” James sighed as he opened the door again, “I actually do like spending time with you…when we’re not at each other’s throats.” He is right. Every time we run into each other it’s always the same deal – argue, yell, have angry sex, do more yelling and then have more sex. And for what? Nothing! All it ever does is leaves us both in a bad mood. We’re two grown adults acting like angst ridden teenagers. Yet somewhere, in amidst all of that chaos we still manage to have structured conversations. Picking up a carton of beer, I looked at James.

“I’m really sorry.” “I am too,” He sighs, “We both acted pretty childish.”

“Friends?” I proposed, propping up my knee to rest the carton on it as I offered out my hand. Slowly, a grin started to stretch across his face as he shook my head.

“Friends,” James nodded.